"Absolutely nothing Daisy. Sorry." Mr. Winter was always on the look-out for furniture for Daisy - something he could pick up cheap, mend and varnish in return for a great favour Daisy had done him three years ago.

Daisy asked, “What about the paintings? Are they any good?” “No, the usual amateur stuff - English landscapes and sea tempests - but when I had finished unloading into the back of my shop I had an enormous surprise.

"As you know Daisy, I’m very interested in Italian art, and I’ve made quite a study of it. The picture was a scene of boats and gondolieri in Venice and beautifully painted. I immediately thought of Canaletto.

They noticed that practically everywhere was full of spiders and dust and very broken-down furniture, but in the dining room Daisy saw the beautiful old table and chairs Mr. Winter had mentioned and also a huge black sideboard with beautifully decorated green glass cabinets.

“Yes, a car knocked my mother down and she never recovered from the accident.” Elodira’s eyes became misty, “Dad loved her very much and always said that she was the one who kept all the threads together.

“Yes I did. Fortunately I won a scholarship to study languages and as soon as I was able to afford a little flat I had Father come to live with me. Now I work for a company which organises international conferences and supplies translators in London.”

As I told you before, everything fell apart after Mother had her accident – the manor went to rack and ruin and there was no money coming in at all. That’s why everything has been abandoned here for years.”

Then a few steps up there was another man in military uniform called Sir Edwin too, a rather formidable gentleman who had obviously served in India, judging by the exotic landscape and a mongoose killing a cobra in the background.

Daisy and Mr. Winter strolled in and out of rooms where the aristocracy had once slept. Elodira came up the stairs and joined them once again. “Would you like something to drink? I’m afraid there’s nothing much I can offer you other than a glass of claret or a cup of tea.”

“Well no, I went to Rome on sort of learning trips but my mother never wanted to go back to Italy as she had lost both her parents and had no living relations there.” Elodira sighed, “But I don’t want to bore you with these things. Did you see anything you liked?”

After hesitating for a moment and studying Daisy’s face to see if she could really trust her, Elodira nodded, “Yes, all right. They’re in my mother’s escritoire in the old study – if you’d like to come with me...”

Daisy persisted for half an hour trying to find something which would explain the Canaletto. “Nothing much here,” Daisy sighed and turned to Mr. Winter, who was sitting in a huge leather armchair looking rather thoughtful.

Mr. Winter suddenly jumped up, “Just a minute, ladies!” He began running his fingers along the bottom row of pidgeon holes in the escritoire, “Maybe you don’t know that this wonderful piece of furniture has a surprising feature… at least there should be in an escritoire like this.”

Elodira stopped reading and suddenly looked puzzled. “She has written L for £100 in January, L and R for £200 in April, R for £100 in May and C for £1,000 in July. Then… nothing more. My mother died in July! Daisy, what does all this mean?”

Elodira was looking pale by now and whispered, “Just a minute – I’ve remembered something – there were two Italian-looking men at Mother’s funeral. I thought at the time they might be related to each other.”

Mr. Winter stood up. “Miss Elodira, don’t worry. I’m going to take the painting to the police now but, as Daisy said, the Canaletto could have been in the back of my shop already and when I bought the paintings from you they got mixed up.

“Oh, what is it?”Daisy was puzzled until she opened it. There was a cheque made out to her and a newspaper cutting. Famous stolen painting found by local antique dealer in a church fete. The police say he will receive a substantial reward.”

Daisy continued, “It couldn’t have been Sir Edwin – he clearly wasn’t the type! Perhaps the two brothers had forced their sister to keep the Canaletto and other pictures on their behalf and, well, act as a fence!”